books

Lawson shows how the Quran may be engaged with for meaning and understanding, the usual goal of mystical exegesis, and also how it may be engaged with through tafsīr in a quest for spiritual or mystical experience. In this earliest of the Báb’s extended works, written before his public claim to be the return of the hidden Imam, the act of reading is shown to be something akin to holy communion in which the sacred text is both entrance upon and destination of the mystic quest. The Quran here is a door to an “abode of glory” and an abiding spiritual encounter with the divine through the prophet, his daughter Fāṭima and the twelve Imams of Ithna-ʿasharī Shiʿism who inhabit the letters, words, verses and suras of the Book.

The cover calligraphy, by Burhan Zahrai, is of Qur’án 53, the Súrat al-najm or Chapter of the Star, verse 11: مَا كَذَبَ الْفُؤَادُ مَا رَأَىٰ “The heart lied not of what it saw.”

How do people understand the Quran to be divine revelation? What is it about this book that inspires such devotion in the reader/believer? Todd Lawson explores how the timeless literary genres of epic and apocalypse bear religious meaning in the Quran, communicating the sense of divine presence, urgency and truth. Grounding his approach in the universal power of story and myth, he provides a unique appreciation of the unparalleled status and unique charisma of the Quran as a religious text and monument of world literature.

Roads to Paradise: Eschatology and Concepts of the Hereafter in Islam. Edited by Todd Lawson et al. Brill, 2016.

Multi-disciplinary study of Muslim thinking about paradise, death, apocalypse, and the hereafter, and eschatological concepts in the Quran and its exegesis, Sunni and Shi‘i traditions, Islamic theology, philosophy, mysticism, and other scholarly disciplines reflecting Islamicate pluralism and cosmopolitanism. Gathering material from all parts of the Muslim world, ranging from Islamic Spain to Indonesia, and the entirety of Islamic history, this publication in two volumes also integrates research from comparative religion, art history, sociology, anthropology and literary studies. (2 volumes, 1493 pp.)

A Most Noble Pattern: Collected Essays on the Writings of the Báb,`Alí Muhammad Shirazi (1819-1850). Edited by Todd Lawson and Omid Ghaemmaghami. Oxford: George Ronald, 2012.

This collection of 16 essays by many of the leading specialists on the sometimes very difficult and challenging writings of the Báb disclose simultaneously the similarity to traditional Iranian Shi‘i culture of the author’s message and a desire to move beyond it.

Gnostic Apocalypse and Islam: Qur’an, exegesis, messianism, and the literary origins of the Babi Religion. London and New York: Routledge, 2011, 230pp.

Of the several works on the rise and development of the Babi movement, especially those dealing with the life and work of its founder, Sayyid Ali Muhammad Shirazi, few deal directly with the compelling and complex web of mysticism, theology and philosophy found in his earliest compositions. This book examines that intricate and sometimes dazzling corpus for what it has to tell us about the literary making of the Babi movement, its relationship to the wider religious milieu and its profound debt to esoteric Islam, especially Shi’ism. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of Qur’an Commentary, Mysticism, Shi’ism, the modern history of Iran, comparative apocalyptic and messianism.

The Crucifixion and the Qur’an: A Study in the History of Muslim Thought. By Todd Lawson. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2009, 278 pp.

This fascinating work is the product of many years of scholarship. Accentuating the neutrality of the Qur’an’s position, it is suggested that over successive centuries the discussion of the crucifixion within the Islamic tradition was proportionately evolved to accommodate the doctrine of denial in a way which obscured the neutrality of the original Qur’anic position. One can certainly admire the clarity and rigour with which Lawson eloquently presents his arguments and authoritatively marshals the sources, especially given the gamut of materials consulted in this work. The detailed manner by which these sources are introduced and examined within the broader discussion of the crucifixion in Islamic thought makes the book an absorbing read and an importance reference point for material on this subject. Particularly informative is Lawson’s thorough treatment of the historical development of the exegetical materials on the substitution theory, as it reveals the fascinating extent to which this was adapted and fleshed out in the different tafásír. – Mustafa Shah, Journal of Qur’anic Studies (vol. 12, Oct 2010).

Reason and Inspiration in Islam: Theology, Philosophy and Mysticism in Muslim Thought. London & New York: I.B. Tauris in associaton with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2005, 558 pp.

The treasures of the inner life of Islam are sadly neglected in current debates, descriptions and studies. This book attempts to reorient the focus to concentrate on the experience and expression of the spiritual realm where problems of being, identity, authority, mind, love and soul are studied from a variety of perspectives. The 38 articles represent new research by leading figures in the contemporary study of Islam. Read online.

“The richness of the volume cannot fairly be described in a short review. . . . It is a veritable one-volume encyclopaedia of contemporary scholarship tapping the themes of theology, philosophy and mysticism in the history of Islamic thought . . . and highly recommended for all who are genuinely interested, professionally or otherwise, in the Islamic tradition.” David Waines, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Religious Studies, Lancaster University, U.K.

selected publications

“The Bahá’í Tradition: The Return of Joseph and the Peaceable Imagination,” in Fighting Words: Religion, Violence, and the Interpretation of Sacred Texts, ed. John Renard (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), pp. 135-157. Read online.

“Typological Figuration and the Meaning of “Spiritual”: The Qurʾanic Story of Joseph.” Journal of the American Oriental Society, 132:2 (2012), pp. 221-244. Read online.

“Divine Wrath and Divine Mercy in Islam: Their Reflection in the Qur’án and Quranic Images of Water,” Divine Wrath and Divine Mercy in the World of Antiquity, edited by Reinhard G. Kratz and Hermann Spieckermann (Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008), pp. 248-267. Read online.

“The Bab’s Epistle on the Spiritual Journey towards God: provisional translation, commentary and preliminary edition of the Arabic text of the Risalatus’suluk” in The Baha’i Faith and the World Religions, ed. Moojan Momen, Oxford: George Ronald, [2005], pp. 231-47.

“Seeing Double: The Covenant and the Tablet of Ahmad,” in The Baha’i Faith and the World Religions, ed. Moojan Momen Oxford: George Ronald, [2005], pp. 39-87.

“The Dawning Places of the Lights of Certainty in the Divine Secrets Connected with the Commander of the Faithful by Rajab Bursi,” in The Legacy of Mediaeval Persian Sufism, edited by Leonard Lewisohn, Foreword by Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh, Introduction by S.H. Nasr. Khaniqahai Nimatullahi Publications (London) in association with SOAS Centre of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, University of London: London, 1992, pp. 261-276. Read online.

“Interpretation as Revelation: The Qur’án Commentary of Sayyid ‘Ali Muhammad Shirazi, the Bab,” in Approaches to the History of the Interpretation of the Qur’án, ed. A. Rippin. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1988, pp. 223-253.

Abbas Amanat, Pivot of the Universe: Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831-1896 University of California Press, 1997, in Canadian Journal of History /Annales canadiennes d’histoire, 33 (1998): 137-8.

Francis E. Peters. Muhammad and the Origins of Islam. State University of New York Press: Albany, 1994 for The Journal of Religion, 75 (1995): 602-4.

Th. Emil Homerin. From Arab Poet to Muslim Saint: Ibn al-Farid, His Verse, and His Shrine. University of South Carolina Press: Columbia, South Carolina, 1994 in: International Journal of Middle East Studies 27 (1995):.

Denis MacEoin. The Sources for Early Babi Doctrine and History: A Survey, Journal of Semitic Studies, 38 (1993): 355-7.

Jane Dammen McAuliffe. Qur’ánic Christians: An Analysis of Classical and Modern Exegesis. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1991 for International Journal of Middle East Studies 25:1 (1993): 149-51.